HTC’s plastic flagship officially revealed on Chinese language page

It’s no secret that HTC has been preparing a lower-cost, plastic version of the HTC One M8, but now it’s official: a giveaway page HTC linked to on Weibo reveals a few clear renders as well as partial specifications for the plastic flagship.

According to the URL permalink, it looks like HTC will refer to this device as the E8, instead of “Ace” or “Vogue.” As suspected, the HTC One E8 will have virtually the same specifications as the HTC One M8, starting with a Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz. It looks like the phone will include the same 5-inch 1080p screen as the M8 uses, but disappointingly, the camera will not be the Ultrapixel-based shooter included on its metallic brother, lacking the dual-LED flash. Perhaps HTC will include the same 12-megapixel camera it used on the HTC One Mini 2. Of course, the handset forgoes an aluminum body, instead using a polycarbonate shell similar to the market-leading Samsung Galaxy S5. But the plastic shell allows the phone to come in four colors, including a bright red and royal blue.

The most important number for the E8 is price, which is not mentioned on the giveaway page. Currently, the HTC One M8 retails for between $600 and $700 unlocked, which is a lot, especially in the Asian markets the Ace is presumably targeted at. Rumors from Chinese media peg the price as low as 3000RMB, or $380, which would be about a little over half of the M8’s current 5300RMB price tag, but still priced higher than comparable phones from OnePlus and Oppo.